India’s current foreign policy clearly supports a multipolar world order, notwithstanding the US’ supreme ascendancy and self-obsessed approach in international relations. This gravely endangers the national interests of relatively weak and developing nations, often labeled “Third World countries,” including India, even though it is now the fourth-largest economy in the world. This inevitably discourages the consolidation of international and regional institutions in the evolving multipolar world and undermines the solemn spirit of multilateral negotiations, resulting in significant losses for Third World nations.

India’s moral and cultural foundations in foreign policy

In this scenario, India’s national development goals require freedom of decision-making and independent action, which its foreign policy, characterized by the doctrine of nonalignment, must pursue to protect and advance its national interests and discourage alignment of nations in rival blocs, thus consolidating the spirit of multipolarity in international relations and promoting the larger interests of global humanity.

While the changing world today often poses considerable challenges or even threats to the very survival of a state, given the structural compulsions and constraints in international relations, as pointed out by the great realist of our times, John Mearsheimer, India’s ancient moral traditions and rich cultural heritage characterized by peace, non-violence, justice, freedom, etc., underscore its magnificent policy of humanism and globalism for the welfare of the entire humanity. 

Rising security concerns and geopolitical shifts

As is evident, the above-mentioned structural compulsions significantly contribute to rising economic inequalities and military threats, altogether engendering security concerns, as witnessed in the short military flare-up between the US, Israel and Iran in June, and between Venezuela and the US, besides the long-running Russia-Ukraine war and the bitter armed conflicts between Israel and Hamas, which have taken an ugly turn, with horrible terror outfits. Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, which opened new war fronts against Israel in the past, have now been destroyed by Tel Aviv.

Taken together, these threats tend to shift the so-obtained liberal-democratic order towards a likely new world order dominated by prominent developing economies in the “third world”: Brazil, South Africa, India, Argentina, along with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) — comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Iran and Belarus — and its 25th summit, held from August 31, 2025, to September 1, 2025, in Tianjin, China.

In fact, the SCO, founded in 2001, has now emerged as an effective economic forum for the poor and developing countries, known as the Third World, which are striving to rebuild themselves after suffering centuries of discrimination and exploitation, thereby forging the spirit of south-south cooperation advocated much earlier by the Non-aligned Movement, of which India is a prominent founding member and a firm believer in the doctrine of non-alignment. 

This is why India’s foreign policy continues to move forward with suitable modifications and rising self-esteem and confidence, as witnessed at the aforesaid SCO 2025 meet and in Trump’s conciliatory gestures towards India’s Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi on the tariff issue, which once again remind us of the earlier cordial relations between India and the US during his first presidential years.

Perhaps the SCO summit has almost altered the global scene by bringing to the fore a Troika comprising Moscow, Beijing and New Delhi — almost like the earlier one comprising India, China and the US — and that has considerably challenged the US’ hitherto-maintained global supremacy, sustaining Washington’s self-absorbed approach in international relations and global affairs.

Strategic partnerships and technological development

While India continues to uphold its flagship policy of nonalignment in international relations, it increasingly needs American support to gain entry to the United Nations Security Council and other prominent forums, such as the Group of Eight (G8), AUKUS (Australia–UK–US security partnership), the Nuclear Supplier Group and the Fissile Material Control Regime.

The country also seeks to secure the latest scientific technologies related to energy security — particularly nuclear energy and other nonconventional sources of energy — supercomputing, information technology, space and ocean exploration, weather and monsoon studies, critical engineering technology and the latest medical advances, alongside military modernization and the development of the latest arms and weapons technology.

Notwithstanding India’s efforts to secure American support for its own advancement, Indian companies, talent and start-ups are now making significant contributions to the US economy and security. It is no coincidence that the US has become the primary destination for India’s defense exports, thus underscoring the growing economic and security-related interactions between the two largest democracies in the world.

These issues aside, India faces grave threats along the McMahon Line and at its international borders with China due to Beijing’s expansionist assertions, which are leading both neighbors to drift apart, in addition to Pakistan’s export of cross-border terrorism.

Besides fighting organized violence by international terror networks and economic crimes by major economic offenders, New Delhi demands Washington’s clear and unequivocal support not only for itself but also for the overall peace and security of South Asia, West Asia and Central Asia. This was reiterated in light of the US’ inclination toward Pakistan and its efforts to rebalance its strategy, particularly toward South Asia, within the framework of a more systematic and coherent policy for Asia, given the mounting challenges from China under the earlier US President, Joe Biden. Regarding economic issues, Biden discarded the earlier “Trump tariffs on Chinese imports. President Biden sought a more comprehensive effort to de-risk the economic relationship with China and put in place tighter controls on the transfer of advanced technologies.”

In fact, Biden initiated many political and institutional measures in Asia that did not follow the Trump legacy to balance the economic pressure imposed by China. Among these significant measures, elevating the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) to the summit level and expanding the scope of the strategic partnership with India are most pertinent in the *current century’s emerging bonhomie between the two largest democracies.

Further, to counter the US’ imperialist designs, coextensive with Russian and Chinese expansionist and neocolonial goals, the nation-states in the Global South, including nonaligned states, must strengthen the spirit of the aforesaid south-south cooperation and other instruments of regionalism and globalism, besides investing in worker-centric policies and rejecting neo-liberal frameworks that sustain Western economic interests at the cost of specific local development. Additionally, a renewed focus on strengthening multilateral institutions such as BRICS and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), as well as on regional trade agreements outside US influence, is necessary. 

Also, the global trade and tariffs policies must be restructured to prioritize fair labor practices, environmental protection and economic justice for developing nations apart from restraining the emerging differences between the US and the Western European states in the overall interests of peace, security and liberal-democratic-progressive traditions of the West, including the NATO alliance.

India supports the growing reality of a multipolar world and of a multipolar Asia, and it actively participates in global negotiations to advance the common interests of the international community, including itself. Evidently, the emerging realist approach in India’s foreign policy underscores the country’s independent goals, to be achieved with a view to accomplishing its vital national interests, while discouraging alignment of nation-states into rival groups.

[Kaitlyn Diana edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

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